People with not much to say, and even less insight, saying things that aren’t true

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond

“Arsenal are falling apart.  One must clearly say, Arsenal show signs of disintegration under Wenger.”

Now which middle of the road unbiased neutral critic might have said that?  Oh look it was former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann, now a Sky Germany pundit.  He said it  in an interview with Sport Buzzer which is a web site.

So what other goodies do we have?  Here’s one: “Jack Wilshere’s entire Arsenal career could hinge on the Europa League.”

Thus shouts out one headline, and yes it might.  But more likely, it might not.  And as always, “this might not be very important” doesn’t actually normally make it as a headline and so we have the rampant sensationalism of people with not very much to say, and even less insight saying a lot of things that aren’t actually likely to be true.  Such is the definition of football journalism.

In his press conference Arsène Wenger was asked if he watched the Champions League games on Tuesday night and of course as always he answered politely.  He said he did, which in the papers became that he “admitted” he did, as if it were some sort of crime or some sort of guilty secret, and not what you would expect of a manager always watching players, and knowing that some of the teams in the Champs League will end up in the Europa as possible opposition to Arsenal.  Oh yes and knowing that one of the teams playing was a team we would be playing this coming weekend.  “Yes I watched‚” he admitted.  And that is NEWS.

Mr Wenger also said the whole thing raised “many questions about the Champions League, the way it is organised now. We will certainly have to think about it.”  And then as he does more frequently these days he chose not to elucidate further, probably through the knowledge that the journalists wouldn’t quite follow what he was talking about.

Instead he spelled out very slowly and very clearly for the assembled gathering the fact that playing Wednesday to Saturday or Thursday to Sunday makes no difference:  “Wednesday or Thursday night is no difference for us‚, Apart from the different competition. But you play similarly. Winning the competition is not the best chance for Arsenal to return to the Champions League.

“It is one of the opportunities but I have come out many times to say I think the best way to do this is through the Premier League. We’ve qualified for 20 years through the Premier League. We want to win every competition we are in but we don’t do that for the reasons of qualification.”

Mr Wenger also made it completely clear that Mesut Özil and Aaron Ramsey are out of the squad today because not only have they been playing for Arsenal but also for their country, and so need a break from the constant training.

What no one mentioned as far as I can see was the issue of the reserve keeper.  Cech was one of those who didn’t train this week meaning he is not just giving way to Ospina in goal but also is not going to be playing backup.  And that raises the issue of which of our other two backup keepers will be on the bench tonight.

The most likely choice must be Matt Macey – who is 23.  His game experience thus far is four games for Accrington Stanley and 11 for Luton Town.   The other option is  Deyan Iliev but he has only recently returned to full training for the first time in almost two years after recovering from a serious knee injury.

Elsewhere as we know Mr Wenger shared his journalistic “duties” with Olivier Giroud, who is also waiting to score his 100th goal for the club.   Here’s what he has done in his career thus far…

Club Season League Total
Games Goals Games Goals %
Grenoble 2005–06 6 0 6 0
2006–07 17 2 19 2
Total 23 2 25 2 8%
Istres 2007–08 33 14 34 14
Total 33 14 34 14 41%
Tours 2008–09 23 9 26 13
2009–10 38 21 41 23
Total 61 30 67 36 54%
Montpellier 2010–11 37 12 43 14
2011–12 36 21 42 25
Total 73 33 85 39 46%
Arsenal 2012–13 34 11 47 17
2013–14 36 16 51 22
2014–15 27 14 36 19
2015–16 38 16 53 24
2016–17 29 12 39 16
2017–18 2 1 3 1
Total 166 70 230 99 43%
Career total 355 135 440 189 43%
Arsenal v Cologne

 

 

Recent Posts

9 Replies to “People with not much to say, and even less insight, saying things that aren’t true”

  1. Well, look: Most people want HONESTY.

    Constantly making up crap (as the media does) to upset people is a petty form of evil.

    I learned the hard way that those who deliberately upset others do it because it gives them pleasure.

    It’s sadism.

    These sadists LOOK FOR those who will believe them.

    They get off on violating your trust.

  4. @Jimbo

    Tottenham in Europe: last two games, both played at Wembley – two red cards (Alli and Vertonghen).

    Tottenham in England: 84 games in the league without a red card and counting.

    Weird, eh?

    Aubameyang’s clear goal was disallowed. The one of Pulišić was screwed up by Aubameyang’s activation from the offside position. All-in-all, Peter Bosz played with a suicidal high back-line against Spuds and Klopp’s blind spot (goalkeepers) came to punish Borussia once again as Burki conceded two near-post goals that a top goalkeeper would have never conceded.

  5. A martian visiting earth for the first time and reading Arsenal bloggs might think that we are all paranoid about how the media conducts itself towards us.

    If one did not see it oneself, no one would believe it, but there it is.

    They have clearly perceived AW and our club and players (and fans) as being ripe for headlines and are flogging what they think is a dead horse for all its worth.

    It certainly does seem that the media have forgotten about Liverpool’s recent thrashing, whilst they cannot seem to get our defeat to them out of their minds.

    With all the other teams, except for Liverpool, having handsome wins, the time is ripe, and not for the first time, for us to slip on a banana skin of our own making.

  6. This was my favourite part:

    In his press conference Arsène Wenger was asked if he watched the Champions League games on Tuesday night and of course as always he answered politely. He said he did, which in the papers became that he “admitted” he did, as if it were some sort of crime or some sort of guilty secret, and not what you would expect of a manager always watching players, and knowing that some of the teams in the Champs League will end up in the Europa as possible opposition to Arsenal.

    Girouds Arsenal Stats ar very good, almost 1 in 2. And we haven’t exactly been standout in those seasons either. Nor can he grease his parts on a raft of crossing maestros deliveries.

  7. jjgsol

    But that’s the point isn’t it. We don’t even need to slip on a banana skin to be criticised do we.

    We beat Bournemouth and all we got was the ‘flat track bullies’ line regurgitated.

    Which is precisely what will happen if we win handsomely tonight.

    We beat Leicester and all we got was criticised for being shocking at the back, despite it being almost entirely 2nd string.

    It has forever been thus.

    We go an entire season unbeaten: Too many draws.

    We win 3 FA Cups: Not trophies anymore.

    Anyone that disputes or even plays down this Media hatred and subsequent persecution of us are either, blind, stupid or maybe even a large dollop of each.

    As for tonight, media wise, as is often the case with us, we are on a hiding to nothing.

  9. After the Spurs Dortmond game (‘WE PLAYED LIKE ADULTS’ – ALDERWEIRELD IMPRESSED BY MATURE TOTTENHAM )
    After Arsenal Koln game (ALEXIS INSPIRES ARSENAL COMEBACK VICTORY UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE) Leaving out the actual architect Saed Kolašinac . Same goal Margin 3:1

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *